What to Make of NBC’s and Fox’s Offerings

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/business/media/nbcuniversal-and-fox-at-the-upfronts.html

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This week the major television networks are unveiling their offerings for the coming season to advertising buyers. Money and prestige are riding on the results. There will be hits, and bombs, and the viewers (along with the critics) will decide. Is there another “Empire” in the making? Three New York Times reporters who cover media and television — Emily Steel, John Koblin and Michael Grynbaum — assess what they have seen so far.

EMILY: Happy Upfront Week! It’s that time of the year when television networks parade out celebrities, TV sizzle reels and lots and lots of booze to try to lure billions of dollars in advertising spending for the coming year. NBCUniversal kicked it all off Monday with a two-hour presentation at Radio City Music Hall that for the very first time brought together its two broadcast networks, 15 cable networks and broad digital footprint. (It used to hold several events for the various properties.)

There were celebrities (J. Lo, Mariah, Miley Cyrus and Arnold Schwarzenegger). There were comedians (Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers). And there were feathered samba dancers. (The Rio Olympics are only about 80 days away.) John, do you think NBCU’s “all together now” pitch worked?

JOHN: I actually thought it sort of worked. These things can test people — even the biggest TV fan. You’re sitting for a couple of hours. You’re exposed to teaser clip after teaser clip. You’ve got network TV ad people prattling on about how the metrics they’ve got on their hands are better than Nielsen’s or anybody else’s. It’s all a little numbing.

And I thought NBC did a nice job of breaking up the tedium. Instead of it showing us clips for six or seven iffy pilots, we got to watch iffy sizzle reels spread throughout the entire NBCUniversal family. (It actually helped to see some shows from Bravo and E! instead of NBC proper. Those cable shows — Mariah Carey’s reality show stood out — are just different.) It was also nice that they flew in nine billion stars. And Seth Meyers was terrific.

Fox’s upfront was more traditional: Fewer stars, some clips from new shows, a couple of live performances from “Empire” and the new Lee Daniels show “Star.” Why did NBCUniversal group all of its properties together? Was this just a ruse to get Andy Cohen on stage?

EMILY: I wouldn’t put it past him! In all seriousness, TV long was king of the advertising world. It offered advertisers a one-stop shop for reaching tens, if not hundreds, of millions of potential customers. The networks didn’t have to work that hard to sell 30-second commercial slots. Today, it’s the age of fragmentation.

NBCUniversal highlighted its ability to still reach almost all Americans, especially with big events like the Olympics.

Mike, welcome to the upfronts. How did this compare to City Hall?

MIKE: The musical numbers were a slight improvement from, say, Mike Bloomberg as Spider-Man, although a few of the groanier gag lines (Les Moonves as the supervillain Lex Moonves?) felt downright municipal. I was struck by the disdain toward digital that radiated from both Fox and NBC executives, who fell over themselves to assert TV’s superiority over YouTube. Then there was the smackdown line from NBC’s ad chief, Linda Yaccarino, who threw shade at Nielsen’s outdated ratings metrics and declared, “I’m happy to do their job for them.” But along with the copious sushi at the Fox afterparty, there was a deck-chairs-on-the-Titanic vibe; this cozy upfront world just does not seem sustainable.

EMILY: So guys, after Day 1, what’s the buzz on hits and misses for next season?

JOHN: NBC’s first clip? A time-travel thriller called “Timeless.” It seemed fine. Fox opened with the “24” reboot. At the Fox party last night, network executives were gushing about “24” and their “Lethal Weapon” revival. I think it’s fair to say the “Lethal Weapon” enthusiasm was not shared by a number of non-Fox-affiliated people at the party.

EMILY: Both NBC and Fox presented new shows featuring time travel. Interesting that they both included an African-American man returning to the less-than-welcoming past. Executives at the Fox party called the subject a bit cliché. Fox’s show “Pitch,” about a female baseball star, looked promising, but some execs wondered what made the story line a full series rather than a two-hour movie. The sizzle reel for NBC’s “This Is Us,” a one-hour drama starring Mandy Moore about people who share the same birthday, brought tears to my eyes. (Seriously.) But a couple of people I talked to wondered what the show was about.

JOHN: I can confirm: I saw you well up. And it was only Day 1.

MIKE: “This Is Us” was a little too “Love Actually” for my tastes, but I don’t think I’m in the target demo. I loved Mike Schur’s “The Good Place,” with a winning Kristen Bell as a surly ghost, and I’m excited for “Great News,” a Tina Fey project that filmed its pilot in the NY1 newsroom.

JOHN: “Making History” came out of nowhere. It was funny. NBC’s (very pricey) “Wizard of Oz” midseason drama “Emerald City” also was a hit in the room.

Emily, I saw you tweet about the number of women on stage who were not wearing much of anything.

EMILY: It was shocking that in 2016 — when women make up about half the people working in the advertising industry — that presentations for both NBCU and Fox featured so many almost naked women. At NBCU, there were samba dancers wearing lots of feathers but not much else. There also was a bedazzled Mariah Carey in high heels. And at Fox, there was a group of women in nude glitter body suits, dancing and singing: “Look at my body. Gonna look sexy.”

Seems like it’s still very much a “Mad Men” world for women in advertising, just as The Times reported recently.

JOHN: Let’s see what ABC comes up with. We’ll be back Wednesday morning to give you a rundown.